Additional births align with work-from-home trend, study finds

A three-hour round trip made motherhood and a career out of reach for Stefi Markowicz. But when the pandemic hit, she started working from home, and in June this year she gave birth to a son.

Markowicz, 27, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attributes the change in her routine to becoming a mother earlier than expected. Research suggests other parents can too.

A new study from Stanford University estimates that 80,000 additional births occurred each year in the United States between 2021 and 2025 due to the increase in remote and hybrid work arrangements fueled by the pandemic.

The study also found that couples who telecommute at least one day a week are more likely to conceive — and more likely to plan to have more children in the future — than those who go to the office five days a week.

The results are based on data from a survey of 19,000 workers in 38 countries and births reported between 2021 and 2025. They also show that the probability of fertility is higher even when only one spouse or domestic partner works from home at least one day per week.

“If you’re home all day, it’s a lot easier to take care of kids,” said Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom, who co-authored the study with Ph.D. student Katelyn Cranney.

Telecommuting also gives couples more time and energy to do what it takes to have children, Bloom added. “It’s hard to design over email,” he said.

Increase in birth rate

Between 2019 and 2021, the number of people working primarily from home tripled to 17.9%, or about 28 million workers, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The Stanford study suggests that the surge in remote work, a byproduct of the pandemic, is largely responsible for the rise.

The findings, however, come as a growing number of employers are requiring their workers to return full-time to their mother ships, including Amazon, Dell and JP Morgan Chase. Others are reducing the number of days they allow remote work. In the third quarter ended September, office vacancy rates declined for the first time since early 2019, according to JLL, a commercial real estate services company.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk have expressed interest in finding ways to increase the U.S. birth rate, which had been declining for years through 2024. year, the rate increased slightly, according to the CDC.

There are many reasons why some Americans choose not to have children, including high child care costs and lack of resources. parental leave. The Stanford study suggests that remote work and hybrid schedules could contribute to change, although there are other potential catalysts.

Another report from the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative think tank, suggests that U.S. fertility rates could increase if couples had access to larger apartments. Based on a survey of more than 6,000 U.S. adults conducted in May, the results show that demand for family-sized units far exceeds supply. Additionally, nearly half of respondents who said they preferred larger floor plans also said that having more bedrooms would help them feel more ready to have a child.

More quality time

Before the pandemic took hold in early 2020, Markowicz commuted by car at least three hours a day, five days a week, to and from his then-employer’s office in Los Angeles. Because of this, she couldn’t imagine becoming a mother without having to quit her job, and her career in public relations was just beginning. She thought motherhood was far away.

However, Markowicz’s vision of the future would soon undergo a radical change. Like many people, she responded to the pandemic by moving closer to her family. She took up residence in her parents’ house in Fort Lauderdale and continued to work for her employer from her childhood bedroom.

About a year later, Markowicz fell in love with a man she met on Hinge, and in late 2022, they married. In the meantime, she had changed jobs and her new employer supported remote work, while her husband, a construction management professional, worked a hybrid schedule.

Markowicz suddenly realized she could become the kind of working mother she wanted to be — one who was always close to her child and not too tired of commuting to juggle parenting and a career. She and her husband decided to try to conceive.

“It’s so much easier to think about raising a family without the stress of leaving your house every day,” Markowicz said. “You also have more energy left to spend quality time with your partner.”

At the end of 2024, she discovers that she is pregnant. A few months later, she was fired. Rather than looking for a job and explaining that she would soon have to go on maternity leave, she started her own PR agency from home. Now a first-time mom, she relies on daycare and her mother to watch her son while she works, even though the two babysitters are a short distance away.

“I just don’t feel like I would be able to do what I’m doing right now if I had to go to the office,” Markowicz said, adding that she expects to be pregnant again in the future, as long as she and her husband can keep their work schedules flexible.

“We definitely want to have another child,” she said.